martial arts improvement?

Question

i need some ways to improve my kicks ie stronger, faster
cause i am strong enough to in all the hits but my opponent normally blocks or counters everything i throw back! please help =)

Answer 1

Hit the gym, medium weights, fast repititions...

Answer 2

It sounds like you are working against yourself. Watch and see if your kicks are almost as fast or as fast as the other students and if so the way you start to throw your kicks or use them may be all wrong. Also have you ever asked any of the other students how they knew that the kick was coming? You can have the fastest kick in the world but if you don't set it up properly, or use it correctly it will not be near as effective. For every rear leg kick that I throw I throw several with my front leg since it has to travel a shorter distance and it igves my opponent less time to react, block, dodge, or counter. Also I don't take a step to throw my lead leg very much. That takes too long so I slide on the foot of my base leg while starting the kick with my front leg and also throw multiple kicks without setting my leg down and target mutlipe areas from multiple angles. I almost never throw a kick where my opponents hands and arms are-he has no reason to move them then and it will make my kick ineffective. I also use my hands along with fakes and feints to spread or shrink his defense and then sometimes place my kicks under, over, or in between his hands and arms. I also use my kicks defensively and can usually hit them with a lead leg side kick if they blitz-it keeps them from coming in as opposed to a round house which is what a lot of beginners tend to rely on. To make your kicks faster check out some of the explosive type exercises. I would also take a look at what is really happening and how I was using them and see if a better strategy or approach is in order.

Answer 3

I think you need to enter more martial arts competitions. That way you will be fighting people who don't know you and what you are good at, also you will be fighting people who will be better than you too! Your opponent probably know you too well, that's why they can counter your attacks.
Use leg weights, the ones that wrap around your ankles and wrist, when sparring do a few dummy moves once in a while too.

My son wants to buy one of those training dummy's that light up the parts you should be kicking or hitting, I don't know anyone whose got one but I'd ask about them too. You can get them in Argos.

Answer 4

Stronger, faster, more accurate, more controlled kicks? So many ways!!!!

As a TKD fighter who has trained for world level competition, I'll tell you a few really good drills.

Roundhouse kick speed:
With someone holding a pad midsection and a timer, kick the pad (front leg) as many times as possible for 20 seconds. Do 3 sets of 20 seconds, with a 30 second break between sets. With time, you'll go from about 25 kicks to 30 to maybe 35 kicks in 20 seconds. It builds up some very dynamic kicking muscles.

Bag work:
Kick a bag 20 times for technique (nice and slow), 20 times for speed (as fast as you can) and 20 times for power (blast the **** out of it), then 20 times a few inches from the bag (so you can practice maintaining balance if you miss the kick)
-Repeat this for roundhouse, side kick, and front kick
-Repeat for front leg and rear leg

Kicking height:
Do a slow sidekick midsection, leave it sticking out, now raise the extended leg to high section, then back down to midsection, then retract the leg slowly.
- Do this for 20 times both legs

Kicking readiness:
Practice various kicks upon sliding, like slide back, forward, and to the side then throw a kick

Do these drills a few weeks and your kicks will be unrecognizably faster!!

Answer 5

If the person normally blocks or counters it sounds to me like you are telegraphing your strikes. Video tape yourself alot fighting & see if you can see yourself pulling your punches or your kicks. Then work on attacking from your guard hand without telegraphing.

Also you may be coming straight in on your opponent so that its easy to counter. You need to step off the line & attack from the side. This takes a lot of work to get fast, but it sounds like you enjoy practice, so that's good.

Speed drills are great too. Record or buy a tape that calls out combinations and see how fast you can do these in 3 min. rounds. Or if you have a training partner, have them keep you on your toes by calling out numbered combinations and making you respond fast. If you don't respond fast enough your partner needs to take away the targets. Helps speed up your reaction time.

Answer 6

do exercises both with a heavy bag and in the air. Practice doing a "cut kick" where you do a thigh kick slicing downward at a 45 degree angle. When you practice your kicks, dont snap at all, kick all the way through. When you kick the bag, pretend you're trying to kick the nearest wall, which means....the person is not even there, you're going to kick through them, now when you get the cut kicks down you will kick someone once and theyre goin down....

Answer 7

IMO the best method of improving your power is to hit the heavy bag. Hit it with the techniques you usually spar with, hit full force for two or three minute rounds, you will see vast improvements in power and technique in a short space of time.

To imporve speed i found skipping and wearing ankle weights in class to be very effective for improving speed.

I had the same problem as you with my kicks, I couldn't get near this guy, but after doing these things for a short space of time he wasn't able to hold his guard up because I was hitting him with speed and power.

Answer 8

It's great and all if you can throw a fast and powerful kick.
But if you do it at the wrong time you'll end up on your ****.
Learn when to use them before you look to improve them.
I've trained with great kickers from Tia-kwando. Seen big fancy powerful ones. But I've seen them done at foolish times. And taken them down with ease. I'd work on parrying and your movement first. To get into a better position to strike.

Answer 9

I recomend doing lots of stair running like in rocky, if it gest easy add a 40 killo back pack

running stairs will get your legs strong and also give you good endurance, that means when you fight you will be able to throw more effective kicks

Answer 10

Concerntrate on your opponent and see what moves they are going to do next and react to it. Try to fool your opponent on what moves or side or body part you are going to use, for example if you want to kick with your right leg act as if you are going to use your left then quickly switch and kick!!! Hope this helps!!!

Answer 11

For strenght hit the weights, also do plenty of squats.

For speed work on your technique, over and over,be mindful that if your legs get bulky due to weight training, they'll be slower, if you can't get any faster, then work on your timing, good timing is sometimes more important than speed.